Of the Top 3 seed in Shanghai, Andy Murray had the easiest afternoon: He didn’t play. The two-time defending champion Murray moved into the third round without hitting a ball when his opponent, Florian Mayer, withdrew with a wrist injury. Next up for the Scot is a date tonight against the quirky Alexandr Dolgopolov. Murray has won all three meetings with the Ukranian.

While Murray watched, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic did play their second round matches on Wednesday, and they won without much sweat. Federer knocked out Yen-Hsun Lu while Djokovic dispatched Grigor Dimitrov.

Federer now plays good buddy and fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka. If Roger wins – he’s 11-1 lifetime against Stan – he’ll be guaranteed of at least one more week as the No. 1 player in world, and that would also be his 300th week at the top position.

“I’m obviously excited,” said Federer of reaching 300. “It’s a big number, even though 299 or 300 doesn’t make a big difference for me. It’s obviously a big match for me. If you look back, there’s many matches where there was a lot on the line, so this is just another one. It’s just more the difficulty also playing a good friend. That adds to the special occasion tomorrow.”

Federer will play his match in the evening local time, a schedule he likes with the family not with him this week in Asia.

“Sleep in, play late. Sleep in, play late,” Federer said. “That’s sort of the schedule now. I don’t have much time to get around anymore. It’s now spending most time at the courts right now.”

If Federer loses the door will be open for Djokovic who would reclaim No. 1 by winning the title coupled with a Wawrinka victory. The Serb faces Spaniard Feliciano Lopez.

Federer levels it out!! That was an amazing shot by Wawrinka at 6-3 in the tie-break, though. What an angle. But anyway, now it’s time for Rog to step it up and take this third set. Come on, Fed, win 6 games and you hit the 300 weeks bar!

YES! Go Roger! 300 weeks at #1, now that’s a benchmark for tennis records. Not that it makes a huge difference with 299, but 300 certainly looks nice and it’s a first in the man’s game. It would be tempting to say that this record will long remain unbroken, but at the same time, Sampras’ 286 weeks and 14 slams must have seemed just as unbreakable 10-12 years ago. So who knows?

But in any case, this is definitely one to celebrate for us Fed fans! GO ROG! Looking forward to a potential clash with Murray in the semis.

If you really parse the data, you can certainly find some Sampras records that still exist (6 times year end No. 1 – though more weeks at No. 1 is more important, I think). But ALL of his important records are now gone.

In addition, Fed has obliterated most of the other players’ records too. Slam finals, Slam semis, consecutive finals, consecutive semis, slam wins, 5 finals in each slam, 7 semis in each slam, 9 QF in each slam, its just an endless list.

And he is not done yet.

I bet this match removes the rust from his game, and he will come out really shapr against Cilic. Cilic had a two hour match too, today, so its not like he will be any fresher.

But Fed needs a short match tomorrow, or Murray should have a long match, otherwise there will be trouble in the semi for him.

I think 6 YEC titles should already be on that list, trufan! That’s one more than anybody had done before (Sampras and Lendl, and maybe I’m forgetting someone). I’d definitely be happy about a seventh, though, that’s for sure.

Nice list trufan. Is Fed also tied with Nadal for most Masters titles or is he ahead? All these records are nice but the thing that I enjoy most about Roger Federer is the way he plays. I don’t know how many other athletes have been both a dominant player and a delight to watch.

oh and a minor quibble. i don’t like it when people say something will last for eternity. i mean don’t get me wrong. 300 weeks at #1 is a great record but in 100,000 years whatever form humans and their culture are at will probably not remember this record. just sayin’. but as long as tennis is a going concern it will probably be remembered.

TFS76 saw that match,it was great to see Tommy really rolling back the years with a fantastic performance,the result made such a mockery of his ranking position,Janko had no answer at all,93 percent 1st serves,i would love to see him play like that against Novak tomorrow and really make a game of it hmmm.

Id just like to say a big congrats to Britains Heather Watson,on reaching her 1st ever WTA tour final,setting up a clash with Sam Stosur or Kai Chen Chang,so much talk about our other Bitish rising star Laura Robson,so nice to see our other girl playing so well and grabbing some headlines,go Heather.